Assessment Types

Key Points Being critical means going beyond summarising and describing A critical review usually follows the same basic structure of introduction, body and conclusion Uses evaluative language Requires wide reading on a specific topic

What is a critical review?

A critical review examines and critically evaluates a topic, a case/example, a text (a book chapter, an article), an argument or a particular subject matter. In the higher education context, "critical" or "critique" means to evaluate, provide your judgement or opinions, discuss the opposites (pros/cons, strengths/weaknesses, advantages/disadvantages). Remember that being critical does not mean to criticise in a negative manner. Instead, it is meant to demonstrate your knowledge on the topic, your ability to discuss it from different perspectives and connect it to the theories, principles, approaches and frameworks in your subject.

Therefore, depending on the specific requirements of the assessment task, a critical review could be regarded and written as a report, an essay or a case study.

How do I plan it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 What kind of language do I use?

The style of language used in a critical review is often evaluative and demonstrates your perspectives of the literature. 

positive / endorsing	negative / less endorsing
important, significant, necessary, crucial and effective	inconclusive, questionable, insignificant, unclear and weak.
There is strong evidence that….. Johnson’s (2014) study demonstrated..… This concept is central to….	There is little evidence in support of…. Johnson (2014) claims that….. This argument does not take into account.. Such approaches, however, have failed to address … The research to date has tended to focus on X rather than However, the main weakness of the study is the failure to address how … However, such explanations tend to overlook the fact that … Jones (2003) has challenged some of Smith’s conclusions, arguing that … Another major criticism of Smith’s study, made by Jones (2003), is that …

What does it look like?

Trautrims et al. (2020) and Liu et al. (2022) mentioned the importance of auditing systems within the organisation to address and detect modern slavery. Organisational mechanisms, such as whistleblowing procedures, are essential to enable workers to report unethical or illegal activities on-site, including suspects of modern slavery (Liu et al., 2022; Trautrims et al., 2020). However, developing and enabling such mechanisms might be a challenge in projects because of the temporalities involved (Söderlund, 2004), and the fact that organisations in the project network evolve over time (Artto & Wikström, 2005; Gil & Fu, 2021). Therefore, future research ought to be devoted to studying how project-based organisations (Winch, 2014) can capture and share lessons learned across projects (Davies et al., 2018; Fuller et al., 2011; Invernizzi et al., 2018). Such lessons learned can be used to develop the necessary capabilities to detect and avoid modern slavery in their construction sites.

One main idea introduced in the paragraph: auditing systems to detect slavery. Synthesis findings from many sources and references. Contrasts the findings of one paper with another pointing out disadvantages. Identifies the need for future research

Tip

Initially, read broadly on the topic to enhance your understanding of the field. However, remember that the critical review needs to relate to your specific assessment task. Although there may be hundreds of sources of information on a topic, the assignment criteria will help you refine and narrow down the scope of your reading.